Shitty Remixes: Not My Future

Welcome to New Zealand music month and all of the excellent gigs it holds for you.

Hamilton has always had a strong music scene. It has stayed strong through all of the various changes in popular music and I believe wholeheartedly that it will keep being strong. Events like the H-Town Circle Jerk, Soundscape and Hamtown Smackdown all pull big numbers. We have radio stations coming out of just about every frequency available. We may not get big, international bands touring here, but we have had some pretty huge Kiwi acts coming through. Ladi6 and Cornerstone Roots both played at Flow bar in the last few months. We have a bevy of excellent gig spaces: Flow Bar, Altitude and Gravity, the Outback. We’re pretty well stocked with Kiwi music, not just during New Zealand Music Month but all year round.

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A Wild Charlie Appears

More than anything else, I adore celebrity news.

The less I hear about natural disasters, the safer I feel. Ignorance is bliss, I am told, which makes me glad that I live in the time I do. News lets me know whose marriage is dissolving and which child actor has overdosed on which drug. Stuff, one of the most visited websites in New Zealand, let me learn about dramatic changes in the weight and appearance of Sir Peter Jackson as he begins filming the first of two Hobbit films. It truly amazed and informed me to learn that people can lose weight and have longer hair in the space of just one decade. I am now a more intellectually rounded human being for having this knowledge. Next to the story of Peter Jackson’s decade-long overnight transformation were some bits of needless filler about business owners forcing their way through the police cordon in the Christchurch CBD and the first air to air engagements in Libya.

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Editorial

Escapism

Welcome to my new addiction.  I’m going to love you intensely until I can’t get enough and at the end of it all you’ll see me dragged away, screaming in tongues and looking like an emaciated crack whore.  Here’s hoping. 

Hi I’m Kate. Know me before you judge me. 

Some of us are more compulsive than others.  I consider myself genetically predetermined to a life of slavery.  Upon discovering something new which tickles my fancy I become obsessive.  Irrationally, I form habits on impulse.  I’ll throw caution to the wind and give anything a go.  That’s the beauty of it all, being up in the air.  Coming down is the hard part. 

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Editorial

Rodney Hide is a bona-fide clown.

He might not have excessively baggy trousers, or a funny face, but he’s definitely a clown. Well, he’s doing a good job of entertaining people and scaring children at least. Some ACT voters might already be up in arms, but calm down guys; I’m just getting started.

Rodney Hide, the spray tanned hurricane from Dancing with the Stars, who used reality TV to get enough spotlight for his far-right party to become a valuable coalition partner, who took his ‘secretary’ on ‘business trips’ on the tax payers dollar, thinks open cast mines are grand and dramatic.

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Slacktivism

We are all apathetic.

If that statement has angered you, then obviously you are not included and that is good. It is good for the university, it is good for the future of our nation and it is good for the Lettuce page.

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Editorial

As you must have heard, Christchurch was devastated almost two weeks ago by an earthquake.

At the time of writing this editorial, 160 people have been declared dead, there is a national state of emergency and dust storms are causing an ass-load of hassle for the rescue workers. Aftershocks, while lessening, are still present in Canterbury, shattering nerves and causing further damage to already unstable buildings.

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Editorial

So, you've made it to university and are about to embark on the hardest, most rewarding experience of your lives.

This year is going to be a hard year for everyone.

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Editorial

Here’s the third to last magazine of the year and we have decided that it’s about time we had a look at sports. Having covered religion over two issues, and done the stock standard student magazines fall-backs of bar reviews, sexuality and pop culture, it is only fair that we give sports its turn too.

As with every other topic we cover, some of you might think that it’s a bit of overkill. The Rugby World Cup is on and everywhere you go you’ll see flags, team colours, face paint and international rugby fans. Why not complete the circle and fill up a student magazine with sports stuff too?

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Editorial

With Art

After this week, there are only three more Nexus magazines for 2011. That means three weeks of classes, then on to exams and then on to summer! I love summer, but that’s pretty much a non-statement. Most human beings on this planet enjoy summer more than winter, so when someone’s talking loudly in a cafe and they state “I can’t wait for summer”, I just think “Well, you can, you’ve been waiting for summer two thirds of your life. You should be good at it. And obviously you’re excited about summer – it equals good times, good people and traditional holidays/presents/swims”.

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Editorial

With Art

We’re getting closer and closer to the end of the year and New Zealand has never been busier. Elections are incoming, and the Rugby World Cup would have had its first games by the time you read this. Heather Roy’s pet monster, the “Freedom of Association” bill is in its final stages – again.

I must admit, as much fun as I have during the election season, I get sick of the name calling. You can’t go ten minutes without a news story about “suchandsuch did a fart on an old lady” or “whatsherface is a murderer because she has Israeli links and wants to build a fence to block off Fairfield”. Yeah, it gets that crazy.

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